That's a false dichotomy. The only reason supplies aren't available anyway is because they've been soaked up by scalpers. The situation you're describing it a textbook example, not something that happens in the real world.
The only reason scalpers buy things is to resell them. Scalping does not cause a shortage.
The reason supplies aren't available is the local supply is out of action from the disaster, and nobody has any incentive to bring supplies in to the disaster zone.
Scalping by definition causes a shortage due to speculators buying up large quantities of something with the plans of selling it at an inflated price caused by a lack of supply.
It isn't the only reason, but saying it doesn't cause shortages is absurd. Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down.
The only purpose to scalping is reselling it. Not taking it out of supply.
> caused by a lack of supply.
Scalping neither increases nor decreases supply.
> Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down.
People were hoarding, not scalping. And they were hoarding because stores were not allowed to increase the price.
